It’s 5am and I’m heading north. Northern Maine is synonymous with large landlocked salmon and I have high hopes. Today I will be fishing new water so I’m extra psyched. I arrive, rig up, and head to the water. No one is around and the river looks promising. Working down stream I encounter classic salmon pools, runs and pocket water, but no fish. My usual standby flies don’t produce, so I tied on an intricate nymph/dropper set up and manage a handful of smaller brookies. But where are the 20″ salmon I dreamt about a few hours ago? After a long trek down stream I decide to head back up river. Along the way the fast pocket water looks oddly inviting. I stop, try a hole and move on. About the third hole my fly stops mid-drift and I tighten into a nice fish. After some fancy fast water fighting I managed to net a beautiful Maine brookie of around 18″. My day is made! The rest of the day I worked my way back to the truck probing any pool large enough to land a fly in and am rewarded for my efforts. Point is the fish may be anywhere and maine’s native son is a magnificent species.